What: The Commission staff is holding an issues resolution and data request workshop for the HECA project. Staff, the applicant, intervenors, interested agencies, and the public plan to discuss several technical areas for the project including project description, air quality, carbon capture and storage, coordination between local, state and federal agencies, traffic & transportation, and water resources.

Why: The HECA project, proposed by Hydrogen Energy California, LLC, is an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant that plans to manufacture hydrogen to generate 300 megawatts of electricity and to produce low-carbon nitrogen-based products such as fertilizer. SCS Energy California, LLC, which acquired the project in 2011, filed an amended application for certification with the Commission in May 2012 after redesigning key aspects of the project.

The project would be located on a 453-acre site currently used for agricultural purposes. The site is located about seven miles west of Bakersfield near the town of Tupman in western Kern County.

The project would use a gasification technology to convert coal and petroleum coke from California refineries to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen-rich syngas fuel would be used to generate electricity and produce other products. The amended project includes a manufacturing facility that would produce urea in liquid and pellet form and other products for agricultural and manufacturing uses.

The proposed plant would capture about 90 percent of the carbon dioxide produced from the gasification process and transport it for use at the adjacent Elk Hills Oil Field for enhanced oil recovery and sequestration. Occidental of Elk Hills, Inc. owns and operates the field.